TASMANIA.. West Coast 28.1.13

Strahan.

Today has been a 'wash the clothes and charge the gadgets' day as we are in a caravan park on the beach at Strahan. It is a pretty place nestled between the rainforest and Macquarie Harbour and is famous for being the base for Australia's most successful environmental protest, which saved the lower Franklin River from being dammed and hence flooding what is the largest remaining wilderness temperate rainforest area in the world. It is now World Heritage listed for the benefit of the planet and its people.

We explored the town and bought obligatory Huon Pine slabs to make a coffee table as well as a breadboard and the following day we watched a demonstration of a giant trunk being sawed in half. The sawdust has effective anti- silverfish properties and smells wonderful.. A bit like nutmeg I thought.

After strong winds the previous day, we set out on the Wildness Heritage River Cruise in warm, calm weather. Although we had allocated seats we were able to roam the ship at will, including the bridge. The captain took us across Macquarie Harbour and then through 'Hells Gates' into the Great Southern Ocean, not possible in bad weather and gave us an informative running commentary as we motored along.

The lighthouse guiding ships through the narrow Hells Gates.

Fish farming. .. Salmon.

Then a leisurely cruise up the Gordon River, stopping at Sarah Island to see remains of the penal settlement used for recalcitrant prisoners from Port Arthur, where prisoners were forced into hard labour. The classic novel by Marcus Clarke, 'For the Term Of His Natural Life', is based on the life of one such ( seemingly innocent) man.

We did a short bush walk and then had a scrumptious lunch after which a large number of guests had a nanna nap!

We saw our first tiger snake in Tasmania... A juvenile we were told and I was surprised as I thought they were a yellowish colour.

A young Huon Pine.... only 70 years old!

Back on dry land we bought tickets for a short play called ' The Ship That Never Was', a very clever and entertaining bit of theatre, partly based on an escape by boat from Sarah Island. Well worth seeing.

The next day we left our civilised caravan park in Strahan and drove to the People's Park to do a short walk to Hogarth Falls. A lot of it was boardwalk through rainforest and and quite lovely. The local school children had drawn their impressions of plants and written descriptions of them and these were on information boards along the walk. They were really engaging.

Hogarth Falls.

Before we left Strahan where we had phone service, we ordered flowers for Laurel, Glenn's mum, who will be 91 tomorrow. We hope you have a great day Laurel.

We then headed out of Strahan along the beach to the Macquarie Heads along a rough gravel road. There were a number of camp grounds there and from the beach we had a landbased view of the lighthouse guarding Hells Gates we saw the day before from the boat.

Queenstown.

The 41 km trip from Strahan to Queenstown was slow through heavy forest and along winding road, much of it uphill. Glenn regularly pulled over to allow faster vehicles to pass as there are no overtaking lanes. The descent into Queenstown is a moonscape of scarified, bare hills and eroded gullies, in such contrast to the lush rainforest which originally covered the hills. The town itself has a sense of timelessness and authenticity compared with touristy Strahan.

On the way out of the valley we stopped at the top of the hairpin bends to see Iron Blow. It is the decommissioned, open-cut mine which was the beginning of Queenstown's mining fame. The 'eagle-eye' view from the springboard is panoramic and the emerald water filling the huge hole is spectacular. It brought to mind The Super Pit in Broken Hill which is a monster by comparison!

We are enjoying the walks in cool conditions but still have a way to go to cover all 60 of them!

The lookout at the top is built around the rocky outcrop.... Making space for nature!

Frenchman's Cap Walk.

The Wall.

We ended the day with a visit to The Wall, an amazing low relief sculptural panorama by Greg Duncan. He tells the story of the Tasmanian Highlands and he told Glenn he would be finished in two years. The scale of the work is an incredible 100 meters long, carved from Huon pine with sensitivity and finely detailed realism. The beauty of the timber panels and their story, is continued on the floors which are laid with off-cuts from the laminated panels.

We are now on the edge of Lake King William for the night just west of Derwent Bridge. Very peaceful! So peaceful that we stayed two nights.

Dinner tonight cooked in butter on the fire.... beautiful flavour and pink flesh. It is a brown trout given to us by Norm who was camped near us at Burbury Lake last night. He fishes regularly for trout and hangs them in a safe to dry them. He also gave us a rainbow trout caught this morning which will be dinner tomorrow night. What a generous man. In exchange we were able to give him fresh date scones cooked by Glenn in the camp oven with a drop of warming port to sip as we sat around the fire. We also fed his cute dog Diesel, some bacon tid-bits at breakfast this morning. How good it is!